M. lax falls in another low-scoring affair

If possessions are the currency by which the business of lacrosse is transacted, then the men's lacrosse team was nearly broke against Hofstra.

No 6 Princeton (2-2 overall) fell to No 9 Hofstra (4-1), 9-5, amid weak facing off that barely gave the Tigers a shot at overcoming solid play by Hofstra's offense. The Pride took 14 of the 18 face-offs, a key advantage that allowed them to keep the ball out of the Tigers' sticks and dictate the pace of the game.

"The bottom line is [it was] the same old problem with us," head coach Bill Tierney said. "If you can't win face-offs, you're not going to win the game. You can't play defense that much and expect to win at this level."

Even the Tigers' skilled sophomore goalkeeper, Alex Hewit, couldn't fend off Hofstra's attack alone. Though he finished the game with an impressive 13 saves, the Pride rained down 37 shots, 21 of them on goal.

The story of the day was as much that Princeton couldn't rack up a significant number of points as the upset itself. After playing several close, low-scoring games, the Tigers had hoped to break into double digits to secure a key win against a good Hofstra team.

It looked like it might be another close contest early in the second quarter, when the Tigers grabbed a 3-2 lead.

After a great check by junior defender Zach Jungers just a few minutes into the quarter, the Tigers wheeled the ball up the field in a quick transition play.

Junior attackman Peter Trombino then threaded a quick pass across the front of the goal to freshman midfielder Josh Lesko, who ripped a hard shot into the back of the net and gave the Tigers a 3-2 lead with 10 minutes, 14 seconds left in the half.

The Pride, however, came roaring back with the next three goals, securing what would be an insurmountable two-goal lead.

"This game was similar to the Virginia game in that we jumped up, everything we worked on was working and then we stopped playing," Tierney said.

Hofstra struck twice more before halftime and again early in the third quarter before a goal by junior attack Scott Sowanick stopped the bleeding. Sowanick figuratively broke his defender's ankles and then flew down the wing to find the net with 7:36 remaining in the third.

Again, though, the Tigers couldn't get the ball enough to mount a comeback. Hofstra easily dominated possession and notched four more goals to take a commanding 9-4 lead.

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"We didn't stop their runs and then go on any runs of our own," senior captain and midfielder Jim O'Brien said. "We were piecing together goals all day — we never went on those two and three goal runs that you need to be successful."

O'Brien had the final goal in the game on an assist from freshman midfielder Mark Kovler. He was one of the five "pieces" to contribute a goal for the Tigers.

Tierney is concerned about the fact that, to date, no single player has emerged as the key source of offense for the Tigers.

"I'm real concerned about our offense right now, we've got to change everything in the next four days," Tierney said, going on to list a few examples of Saturday's problems.

"They played one of our attackmen with a short stick today and we couldn't take advantage of that. They took away Kovler, and they're going to start doing that over and over again now, and so we can break them down [that way]."

The Tigers will have to find a way to break down their opponents' defenses more consistently and effectively if they are to put up the kinds of points necessary to defeat the best teams.

Perhaps Saturday was misleading, though, as the Tigers couldn't get possession as much as necessary to give their offense a chance, the game still had the same appearance as the win over Johns Hopkins and the loss to Virginia: another low-scoring match.

"This could have been a watershed game," Tierney said, alluding to the double-digit score he had hoped to see from his team at the end of the game. "Unfortunately, maybe it was."

But Princeton need not be so down quite yet; they've got a full week of hard practice without classes to interfere coming up this week. The Tigers will then play two games this weekend, against Butler Friday night and Binghamton Sunday afternoon.

"I don't think guys are doubting themselves now that we've dropped two in a row — I think we've got our heads about us," O'Brien said. "[This weekend is a] fresh start, a new opportunity to get two good games under our belt."

Indeed, whether business is better for the Tigers next weekend may depend on what transpires in practice over this week of spring break.